BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Pierre Jérôme founded SpineGuard with Stéphane Bette in January 2009 and was its CEO until July 2017. He is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of international experience in the medtech industry.

Prior to founding SpineGuard, he served as Vice President sales & marketing for SpineVision, a company developing and marketing innovative spinal implants. From 1997 to 2005, he assumed a broad spectrum of executive roles (sales, marketing and business development) with Boston Scientific in both the US and Europe for its Urology, Peripheral Vascular and Oncology divisions.
He started his medtech career with Sofamor Danek, a pioneering Spine company which has since been integrated by Medtronic, today’s Spine leader. While at Sofamor Danek, he held several international marketing positions including European Marketing Director.

Pierre Jérôme obtained a Master degree in Business from the INSEEC School of Management, Bordeaux, France.

Mr. Bette brings more than 22 years of R&D and general management experience in the Spine industry.

Prior to founding SpineGuard, Mr. Bette was a member of the foundational team of SpineVision, a privately-owned international company focused on the development and marketing of spinal devices, where he served for 10 years at various positions of increasing responsibilities from R&D Project Management to VP of R&D and finally US General Manager. Mr. Bette began his career in 1996 as R&D Project Manager with Sofamor Danek, a pioneering spine company which has since been integrated by Medtronic, today’s spine leader, where he developed a scoliosis system.

Mr. Bette received a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering from ENSAM, France and a Post-graduate Degree in Biomechanics from LBM in Paris, France.

Maurice Bourlion is the co-inventor of pediguard® and co-inventor of Electroconductive shockwave lithotripsy. Today he is Professor at Jean Monnet University in Saint Etienne France. He is also Board Member of SpineGuard and member of its Scientific Advisory Board. Formerly Maurice Bourlion was Executive Vice President for SpineVision® group and General Manager of its North American subsidiary in San Francisco (California, USA). Beside his international experience of Marketing for HighTech products Maurice’s scientific expertise is broad and includes pressure transducers (he has directed the study “Maintenance of graft compression in adult cervical spine”), ultrasounds, shock waves, electrophysiology in particular electro stimulation.

Prior to this Maurice was Business Development Director at Medtronic and successfully launched incontinence pacing products and sleep diseases devices in Europe. Before that he was involved in the international development and the successful launch of Extracorporeal Lithotripters of Technomed International group and held several positions as project and product manager. He started his career in the basic research group of Dowell Schlumberger where he participated to design experimental set-up for measuring fluid flow in heterogeneous media.

Maurice Bourlion holds a biomedical engineering degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Electronique et de ses Applications (ENSEA) and a University Degree in Electronics. He is also Certified Professor at the college of electrical engineering and computer science. He is author of more than 40 scientific publications and listed as inventor for 18 patents.

Joey Mason joined Delta Partners in 2003, specialising in Life Science investments. He serves on the boards of Genable, Glysure, Miracor and SpineGuard. Having trained as a doctor, Joey spent five years as an investment banker in the Health Care market with Morgan Stanley International and Technomark in London. From 1995 until 1999 he was Director of Corporate Development at Biotrin Holdings plc, an Irish biotechnology company backed by Delta Partners and other VCs. In 2000 he co-founded and managed Eumom Ltd, a marketing services business which operates websites for pregnant women in Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK. He is a director of Eumom Marketing Ltd. A medical graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, he is a Fellow of the RSA.

Alexia Perouse is doubly qualified in Neurosciences and Management of Enterprises and has worked more than 20 years in the development of public or private innovative companies.
She started her career in the biotechnology field working as an analyst for Chiron Vaccines and Parteurop Développement before joining the sector of Private Equity in 1999 at Sofinnova Partners then at Omnes Capital in 2005. As a partner, Alexia was in charge of the venture capital portfolio (representing € 330M). Specifically, she has developed the medical device (« medtech ») and connected health portfolios.
She has led investments in over ten start-ups (Gecko Biomedical, EyeTechCare…) and played an active governing role as Director. She also pursued several merger and acquisitions such as Biolipox – Orexo, Mutabilis, Pharma Omnium International, Fovea Pharmaceuticals / Sanofi-Aventis, Circulite Inc / Heartware Inc., and several IPO’s such as Eos Imaging (EOSI), Stentys (STNT), SpineGuard (ALSGD), SuperSonic Image (SSI), Pixium Vision (PIX), and Cellnovo (CNV).
Since December 2015, she has been the CEO & Managing Partner at iBionext: a French company specialized in the support of medical innovative and disruptive technologies from creation to growth.
Alexia Perouse also sits on the board of directors of SuperSonic Imagine: an innovative, international company specialized in medical imaging.

Edouard Guillet is a co-founder and managing director of IPF Partners, a leading alternative financing provider focused on the European healthcare sector. Edouard has over 17 years of experience in the healthcare industry. He previously led the Hepatitis and Anti-Fungal Business Unit of Gilead Sciences in France, the leading virology biotech company, after being Gilead Sciences’ Marketing Director, a senior Marketing Executive at Medtronic, the global leader in medical technologies and a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group, a leading strategic consultancy.
Edouard Guillet started his career in investment banking with CCF (now HSBC). He holds an MsC from HEC in Paris.